Regarding a Plane Crash at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park,Sonoma County, California

by

E. Breck Parkman

October 22, 2012

California State ParksDiablo Vista District

845 Casa Grande RoadPetaluma, CA 94954

Science Notes Number 200

Regarding a Plane Crash at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, Sonoma County, California

E. Breck ParkmanSenior State Archaeologist

California State ParksOctober 22, 2012

On December 10, 1964, people in the northern San Francisco Bay area awoke to overcastskies and approaching rain. In Santa Rosa, it got up to 58 degrees that day, after anovernight low of 40 degrees. A winter storm was moving in from the Pacific.

At the time, I was a 7th grader outside Atlanta, Georgia, and it was just another typicalday for me. I don't remember much about that time, other than that I had recentlyobtained a Gibson Sunburst guitar, which I was learning to play, that I enjoyed going tothe local theater to see the Japanese "Godzilla" movies, and that I had a crush on a cutebrown-haired girl who sat in the front of my class. Otherwise, 1964 is a bit of a blur.

Now that I think about it, I do recall listening to Bobby Vinton singing "Mr. Lonely." Ilistened to it on my transistor radio and I believe I had the 45rpm record, too. "Mr.Lonely" was #3 on the charts that month and, for a while, it hit #1. The #2 song was TheBeatles' "I Feel Fine." "Come See about me" by Diana Ross and the Supremes wasnumber one on the charts. The night of December 10, the Beach Boys made their firstappearance on the TV show, Shindig. They performed several of their new songs,including "Little Saint Nick," "Johnny B. Goode," and "Monster Mash." I loved watchingShindig. It was so different from most everything else on TV at the time.

The older crowd might have tuned in to either The Mike Douglas Show or The JimmyDean Show the night of December 10. Mike's guests were Frankie Lane, Dolores Grey,Carl B. Smith, author of "Read and Succeed," ventriloquist Willie Tyler and his dummy,Lester, and the Glenn Miller Band. The band performed "Mack the Knife," "YourCheatin' Heart," and "Hello Dolly." Jimmy's guests included Ferlin Husky, TeresaBrewer, and saxophonist Boots Randolph.

That same day, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech inOslo and General Nguyen Khanh and his ruling military junta prepared to dissolve theHigh National Council in South Viet Nam. They enacted their coup five days later. Thatsame year, the Viet Cong had taken control of much of the countryside and the situationwas deteriorating for the general's forces. Perhaps for that reason, the U.S. was finalizingOperation Barrel Roll, its secret war in Laos, which began on December 14 andcontinued until 1973. By the end of December, 1964, there were 23,310 Americanmilitary personnel on the ground in Viet Nam and 203 Americans had been killed incombat operations that year. As we all know, the numbers would increase dramaticallythe following year.

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Meanwhile, Long Beach oilman, Clinton A. Petrie, age 48, landed his twin-engineCessna 310 aircraft at the Nut Tree Airport in Vacaville for refueling (Figs. 1-2). Petriehad departed Long Beach a few hours earlier and was headed for Santa Rosa, where hewas scheduled to pick up a couple of potential investors and fly them back to LongBeach. It was almost time to make payroll and Petrie and the oil company he owned werehaving a hard time making ends meet. With the money from some new investors in thecompany's account, the payroll could be made. So Clinton Petrie was on a mission tokeep everything together.

When he departed Vacaville around 10:30 in the morning, Petrie radioed the airport inSanta Rosa. The controller who answered advised Petrie that the weather wasdeteriorating, what with the winter storm rolling in. Petrie was an experienced pilot, but,unfortunately, he was not instrument certified. In spite of the bad weather, Petriecontinued on toward Santa Rosa, following a route that would take him over theMayacama Mountains. At about 11:00 that morning, Petrie slammed his aircraft into thetop of the ridge not far from where I now live, within Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. At thetime, there was zero visibility on the ridge.

Although dozens of planes from the Civil Air Patrol were sent out to search for the crashsite, it wasn't until after the weather had improved on December 12 that the remains ofthe plane were found. The following day, Petrie's 22-year old son, Roy, visited the crashsite with investigators. Roy still has vivid memories of that day.

Last December, I took a photograph atop Bald Mountain, near where Petrie's planeimpacted the ridge (Fig. 3). A winter storm was rolling in from the Pacific and theconditions were deteriorating rapidly. The weather was almost identical to what Petriehad encountered 47 years earlier. As the visibility dropped quickly toward zero, Iwondered if I'd be able to see the narrow track well enough to drive the 4WD John DeereGator back down the mountain. It was getting late and I was cold and hungry. I had littlechoice but to go. Hunger is a strong motivation. Petrie was hungry, too, but in a muchdifferent way than me. He hungered for the funds necessary to keep his operations afloat.He must have felt that he had little choice but to continue on to Santa Rosa. And so hewent, thus becoming part of the history of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.

Clinton Petrie was born on February 24, 1916 in Monument, El Paso County, Colorado,and is buried there in the Monument Cemetery (Fig. 4). At the time of his death, Petriewas survived by his girlfriend, Judith, his ex-wife, Virginia, and their 22-year-old son,Clinton R. Petrie. Petrie’s father was Roy V. Petrie (born in Iowa) and his mother wasNellie E. McShane (born in Colorado). In the 1920 census, Clinton Petrie is shown livingin Colorado, but by the time of the 1930 census, he and his father had moved to LongBeach, California. That’s where he grew up and lived for most of his life. As a youngman, he worked in the oil fields in southern California. Later in life, he went intobusiness for himself in the oil well drilling industry (cf. Anonymous 1964a).

On a fine spring day in April, 1940, 30-year old Virginia Petrie boarded the S.S.Klipfontein in San Francisco, bound for Rangoon, Burma. She was accompanied by her10-year old daughter, Loa Ruth "Pinky Blackburn," Virginia's child from an earliermarriage. Virginia had married Clinton Petrie, a man seven years her junior, the previoussummer, the day before he was set to sail to Asia on the S.S. President Cleveland.

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Virginia and Clinton had a quickie wedding in Tijuana and then Clinton was off the verynext day. He had taken a job with the Burmah Oil Company and was required to work a6-month long probationary period in Burma before he could send for Virginia. Clintonsailed alone from San Francisco to Hong Kong, via Honolulu, on the S.S. PresidentCleveland, departing San Francisco on April 7, 1939 (Fig. 5). From Hong Kong, he madehis way on to Rangoon.

As for Virginia, she was born on August 14, 1909 in Akron, Ohio. When she was 18,Virginia married a man named Blackburn. He was the owner of the local drugstore. Theyhad a child together, a girl they named Loa Ruth, but known to her friends and family as“Pinky.” A few years later, Virginia and Mr. Blackburn were divorced, and Virginia tookPinky to live in California.

Once in California, Virginia became an accomplished musician and singer on the radioand with the big bands in Hollywood. She also played the supper clubs in southernCalifornia. Virginia had been introduced to Clinton in 1938, by a cook at one of theclubs.

Clinton was enamored with Virginia from the start and he pursued her around the state.Virginia finally agreed to marry him after learning that he was bound for Asia. She hadlong dreamed of seeing that part of the world and thus it was in this excitement that sheboarded the S.S. Klipfontein and sailed out of San Francisco Bay, with little Pinky in tow.

The Klipfontein was a freighter capable of holding 200 1st and 2nd class passengers inaddition to freight (Fig. 6). It had been built in 1939 and chartered to the Java PacificLine. Virginia chose to travel by freighter in order to visit more ports of call. TheKlipfontein carried her to Honolulu, Iloilo, Bali, Batavia, Surabaya, Singapore, and,finally, Rangoon.

In May, while the Klipfontein was between Manila and the Dutch-East Indies, Virginiaoverheard the Dutch officers talking nervously and some crying. They were huddledaround the ship's radio and just had received news that Holland had been overrun byGerman military forces. According to Virginia, the officers argued among themselvesabout what to do. Some wanted to dump the passengers in the Dutch East-Indies orotherwise return to Manila and drop them off there. Instead, they chose to stick to theoriginal plan and continued on to Rangoon with all the ship's passengers, arriving thereon June 13, 1940.

Two years later, with the Japanese Imperial Army overrunning Burma, Virginia andClinton fled to Bombay (Mumbai) and awaited evacuation to the U.S. At the time, Indiawas embroiled in political dissent and Mahatma Gandhi was calling for the country'sindependence from British control.

When the USAT Brazil departed Bombay, it had on board a crew of 266, and 864passengers comprised of 3 Filipino musicians, 177 Chinese Army Cadets and officers(including pilots), and 684 civilians, primarily families leaving the war zone.Interestingly, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington of the "Flying Tigers" and U.S. Marine Corps"Black Sheep" Squadron (VMF-214) fame was one of those passengers (Fig. 7).Boyington, who would later win the Congressional Medal of Honor for his wartime

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exploits in the Pacific theater, was returning to the U.S. in order to join the active service.Also aboard the Brazil were the survivors of the S.S. Washingtonian, an unarmedAmerican merchant vessel that had been torpedoed in the Indian Ocean the month before.From Bombay, the Brazil sailed to Capetown, South Africa, where it picked up anadditional 47 passengers, and then to Bermuda, where it picked up 252 constructionworkers, before arriving in New York on July 13, 1942. As it departed Bombay, underthe command of Master Harry N. Sadler, the Brazil was stalked by Japanese submarines,one of which managed to torpedo and sink the ship behind the Brazil. As was truethroughout its long service, though, the Brazil delivered its frightened passengers safelyto their ports of destination.

The S.S. Brazil has a story just as interesting as those of its passengers (Fig. 8). The shipbegan service as the S.S. Virginia in 1928, as part of the Panama Pacific Line. TheVirginia was renamed the Brazil in 1937. On December 6, 1941, the S.S. Brazil sailed outof Honolulu at 08:00, the last ship to leave the U.S. before Pearl Harbor was bombed.From Hawaii, the Brazil sailed to New York and then the South Atlantic with passengerson vacation. In 1942, the S.S. Brazil became a U.S. Army transport ship (USAT) for theWar Shipping Administration. On March 19, 1942, the USAT Brazil sailed fromCharleston, South Carolina with 4,000 U.S. troops from various Army units, bound forKarachi, India. It arrived in Karachi on May 12, two months before departing for NewYork with Clinton Petrie and Pappy Boyington. On November 16, 1942, the Brazil leftOran, French Algeria for Newport News, Virginia, transporting 4 officers and 40 ratingsfrom a German U-boat. Following the war's end, the USAT Brazil was sent to theshipyards in New York to be reconverted to a luxury ocean liner. The MaritimeCommission turned the operation of the Brazil over to the Moore-McCormick Lines inAugust, 1946. During the war, the USAT Brazil had transported an estimated 150,000troops into harm's way, with only a few minor mishaps. Some of the most decoratedcombat units of the U.S. Army sailed to war on the Brazil, and, once there, fought insome of the war's most legendary engagements. Following the war, the S.S. Brazil wouldgo on to transport thousands of happy tourists, primarily to and from South America. In1964, the ship was sold for scrap, thus ending her many years on the high seas.

As if steamed out of Bombay, the Brazil set a dangerous course. Clinton and Virginia andthe 800+ other passengers on the Brazil were confined to their quarters below deck.Virginia and Pinky shared a stateroom with 22 other women, all packed in like sardines.Virginia began to go stir crazy within the first few days of the voyage and decided thatshe needed an aversion. There were several pianos on board the ship, but Virginia soondiscovered that they had all been virtually destroyed by the American soldiers transportedto India prior to her evacuation. Not to be undone, Virginia found a fellow passenger witha harmonium. Virginia was in business! She went to the ship's enormous ballroom, whichhad so far been empty, and began playing. Clinton stood at her side, pumping thebellows. Virginia's soprano voice resonated like a bell in the cavernous room. By the timeshe had finished her first number, "Over the Rainbow," more than 100 people had joinedher in the ballroom. Word swept the ship and within half an hour, the ballroom was filledwith hundreds of men, women, and children. Virginia would go on to play and sing everynight for the next six weeks and she would later say that these were the most satisfyingconcerts of her career. Given their fear of enemy submarines and sheer boredom, thepassengers needed Virginia just as she needed them. It was a good marriage. One night,Clinton needed a break from pumping the harmonium's bellows. He saw a fellow in the

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audience whom he had befriended at the card table earlier in the voyage. The man waswearing an AVG (American Volunteer Group) pilot's uniform. Clinton asked the man ifhe'd stand in for him at the bellows. The man agreed and spent the next hour pumping thebellows as Virginia played and sang. The man became a lifelong friend of Clinton andVirginia Petrie. He was from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and his name was Greg Boyington.

Years later, Clinton became a pilot himself. He often flew potential investors back andforth between California and Las Vegas, where he would wine and dine them at theSands Hotel, his unofficial “office” (Fig. 9) Petrie enjoyed Las Vegas and the gambling itoffered him. According to his son, Clinton can even be seen sitting at a card table in thebackground of a scene in the 1956 MGM musical comedy, “Meet Me in Las Vegas” (Fig.10). According to the NTSB accident brief, Petrie had 342 hours of flight time in theCessna 310. That indicates that he was a fairly experienced pilot, but he was notinstrument rated. If he had been instrument rated, he might have avoided his fatalaccident on December 10, 1964, when he piloted his Cessna 310 into bad weather andcrashed hard against the ridge separating the Napa Valley from the Valley of the Moon(Anonymous 1964b-f, 1965) (Fig. 11). By then, Clinton and Virginia had long separated.Virginia died on November 20, 1987, in Farmington, New Mexico and is buried in WestSide District Cemetery in Taft, Kern County, California.

At the time of his death, Clinton and Virginia had a 22-year-old son, Clinton Roy Petrie.Roy was in flight school at the time of his dad's death and often worked for Clinton. Royvisited the crash site on December 13, 1964 with law enforcement authorities, and helpedmake a positive identification of his dad’s aircraft. He still has vivid memories of what hesaw there. According to Roy, Clinton A. Petrie was over $250,000 in debt at the time ofhis death. Roy had registered for the draft in 1960 and, in 1963, claimed conscientiousobjector status. Roy was in U.S. court over his classification until 1966 and, in the courtdocuments, he cited his dad's death as a reason why he couldn't afford to be drafted at thetime. Clinton Roy Petrie is also known as "Captain Bob." He writes under a pen name,Roy McShane (McShane is his father's mother's maiden name). He has written severalbooks on aviation, including a trilogy of novels, Hwelte (2002), Hwelte: The Mustang(2004) and Hwelte: The Soviet SST (2006). Roy worked as a commercial airline pilot forSingapore Airlines and is now retired and living in Phuket, Thailand. Much of theinformation found in this report was obtained from him. These family insights help tocomplete the picture that is offered by the various bits and pieces of a wrecked aircraft,still perched precariously upon the ridge (Fig. 12).1

References Cited

Anonymous1964a Oilmen Snapping Up Northwest Ohio Land Rights. The Blade, March 12, p. 1.

Toledo, Ohio.

1964b SR-Bound Plane Hunted. Press Democrat, December 11, p. 6A. Santa Rosa,California.

1 The crash site is located near a transmission line in the vicinity of Gray Pine and Brushy Peak Trails,within Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. I plan to locate the site within the next few months, in order to betterdocument it.

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1964c L.B. Oilman Missing in Small Plane. Press Telegram. December 12, p. A-1. LongBeach, California.

1964d L.B. Flier Object of Air Search. Independent, December 12, p. A-1. Long Beach,California.

1964e Air Crash Kills L.B. Oil Exec. Independent Press Telegram, December 13, p. A-1. Long Beach, California.

1964f Missing Pilot Found Dead. Press Democrat, December 13, p. 1A. Santa Rosa.

1965 Rule on Area Air Crashes Cause. Independent Press Telegram, June 30, p. A-2.Long Beach, California.

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Figure 1. Clinton A. Petrie. This photo appeared on page 1 of the December 12, 1964issue of the Long Beach Press Telegram. According to Clinton’s son, Roy, this was hisfather’s passport photo.

Figure 2. A Cessna 310 Similar to the One that Clinton Petrie Crashed on December 10,1964.

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Figure 3. Looking West from Atop Bald Mountain, December 29, 2011(Photo by the author).

Figure 4. Headstone of Clinton A. Petrie, Monument, Colorado.

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Figure 5. The S.S. President Cleveland.

Figure 6. The S.S. Klipfontein, c. 1939.

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Figure 7. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington.

Figure 8. The S.S. Brazil, c. 1941.

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Figure 9. The Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, c. 1960s.

Figure 10. Scene from Meet Me in Las Vegas, the MGM Musical Comedy from 1956.

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Figure 11. Approximate Location of Clinton Petrie’s Crash on December 10, 1964.Photo Looking North into Napa Valley. The Summit of Bald Mountain is Just Out of thePhoto to the Left.

Figure 12. Aircraft Debris Still Visible at the Site of Clinton Petrie’s Crash Site (Photo byState Park staff, June, 1991).